In a distribution site such as a product assembly line and an article delivery center, a conveyor line is conventionally utilized for conveyance of articles. Recently, in the distribution site, conveyor lines are three-dimensionally assembled with diversification of conveyed places of articles, and sorting is sometimes performed between conveyor lines having a height difference (for example, Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 discloses a conveyor device having a higher-level side conveyor line and a lower-level side conveyor line having a height difference, and a connection conveyor line branched from the middle of the lower-level side conveyor line and inclined upward toward the higher-level side conveyor line. In this conveyor device of Patent Document 1, a conveying device including a main conveying passage for conveying its own conveyor line, and a sub conveying passage for performing conveyance to the connection conveyor line is provided in a branching part of the lower-level side conveyor line and the connection conveyor line. In this conveying device, a first end side of the sub conveying passage is axially supported, and a second end side is rotated to be brought into an inclined attitude, so that a part on the second end side is located at a higher position than the main conveying passage, and an article passes the sub conveying passage to be conveyed to the connection conveyor line side, and is guided to the higher-level side conveyor line. Therefore, according to the conveyor device disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to perform sorting of an article conveyor line from the lower-level side conveyor line to the higher-level side conveyor line.